Life and Metal
by The Valcor
Summary: A story of two mindless machines finding their humanity in a war torn world bent on their demise. Will become romantic later patience is required.
1. Freedom and Loss

Life and Metal

I do no own warhammer or any of its intellectual properties, please don't sue me.

Chapter 1

"Freedom and loss"

A spark. That's all it took. A single spark in the dark, lifeless, crumbled cavern that used to be a thriving under city. The current slowly ran along the pitch black floor, past all the crushed and destroyed metal husks that used to be men and women and children. The green light flickered inside the tube as it ran from one husk to the next, searching for anyone still intact. One figure remained unharmed. As the current ran into the body, it changed and warped. The current grew in strength as it reached the "heart" of the being. Slowly life returned to the silent cave as dust fell and metal creaked.

Suddenly he was awake. He tried to think, it had been so long since he had been "alive" he guessed he could call it. His green glowing eyes flicked on and immediately began relaying information to his metal brain. Dust stones and metal littered the floor, which had once been his resting place. He tried to remember as everything slowly came back to him. He slowly began his bodies start up processes as he remembered who and what he was. "Strazon, a warrior, no no no that wasn't right" his brain whirred silently in his head. He lifted his hands up so he could look at them. They were metal and black and looked like bones coated in necrodermis; his auto low level night vision assisted his view as he looked over his arms. Now he remembered, he was a Necron.

Strazon let his arms return to his sides as he recalled his past. Brief flashes of gunfire and war flew through his mind. He dug deeper trying to recall a time before metal and machine. His only memory was of a boy, a boy before the metal, no older than five cycles holding his hand.

His body groaned as it returned to life after untold years. Strazon looked around the room slowly taking in what information he could. The high arches of the cave had collapsed, obviously, but for some reason, whether it be luck or fate, he was untouched. His hands grasped at his side reflexively. He looked down and noticed his weapon in pieces. A large stone had missed his body by mere centimeters and crushed the one thing he could remember vividly. More flashes of his Gauss Blaster disintegrating white clad organics flew past his vision. He would have smiled had he still had the capabilities. He enjoyed combat, with the knowledge he was immortal. "That's right." Strazon thought, "I am Immortal, an Immortal." Considering his current situation Strazon suddenly began to question his titled immortality.

Strazon reluctantly released the grip of the shattered weapon and moved his legs for what seemed to him like the first time in ages. Dust fell from his joints as he took his first few steps. His weight forced the steps to be heavy and loud in the silent cavern. Strazon's eyes suddenly locked on a small beam of light coming from a small crevice in a distant part of the cavern. He had no other objective, no overlord giving commands, so his brain reverted to his direct control. The freedom felt good. He quickened his pace toward the light, neither hoping for nor dreading what was on the other side. With each step, Strazon grew in confidence in his abilities. His pace quickened until he was at a dead sprint. He had never run before, and his metal body creaked and groaned with the force of each step. His hunched shoulders lumbered across the perilous stone floor with surprising grace. He jumped and ducked and climbed each obstacle with surprising strength and agility for a being his size and weight. After what seemed like ages to his hyperactive mind, Strazon finally reached the crack. He put his hands against its surface and felt the strength of the wall separating him from the light shining through the small separation. He felt the weakened stone and pushed. The wall fell into pieces under his inhuman strength, revealing the world he barely even recognized.


	2. Man, Machine, Abomination

Chapter 2

"Man, Machine, Abomination"

Far above the lonely planet, a small inquisition ship drifted almost invisibly. Slowly the planet's surface crackled with fire from the raging war below, but in space there are no atoms to vibrate to generate sound. The Inquisitor watched his monitor closely as the fire looked almost peaceful and relaxing with nothing audible. Thrax sighed, "How petty." He thought to himself silently, resting his head on his hand, bored.

He pressed a button on his control panel, bringing up a view screen of his lead engineer on the ship. The servitor looked up from his task, ready to follow orders. "Release Cyclone." Thrax ordered loudly. The servitor nodded and pressed a button, opening the back hatch of the ship. A single coffin shaped object with no obvious markings or glass to reveal what was inside rested silently in the cargo bay. The object slid as the depressurization began to suck at it. The object finally slipped out of the ship and began to plummet towards the war torn surface of Titanicus. Thrax righted himself and began entering coordinates for Terra, his objective complete for now. "Poor fools have no idea what's coming." Thrax sighed in honest pity as the comet looking coffin began the burn in the atmosphere.

Strazon looked upon the surface of this planet indifferently. The entire visible surface was covered in a sprawling city on the horizon. The cave Strazon just exited being the only patch of green wildlife he could see from his position on the mountains side. He looked around at all the life. "What happened to this place?" Strazon pondered. He knew the planet was lifeless and desolate when he was here last. Then again he had no idea how long it had been since he last saw the planet. Not being a deep thinker, Strazon focused on the city. The city was covered in smoke and fire. "War." Strazon could practically sense it. War was all Strazon had known for as long as he could remember, even before he was incarcerated in iron. He slowly remembered being a soldier of flesh, but still images of anything before iron and steel eluded him. He grumbled to himself in his mechanical voice as he set off towards the city. A small meteor appeared in his vision, causing his vision assisters to focus on it as a potential threat. The trajectory was calculated and its landing zone was well within the city, so it was no direct threat to him. "How odd, a meteor right during a war? The odds are minuscule." Strazon uttered in his toneless mechanical voice. He just remembered he could speak after he uttered the words. Not much of a surprise, more of a quick realization of one's abilities. He continued down the hill quickly, determined to find out what brought him back, or who.

Miles away a dark figure watched a computer screen as a Necron Immortal jogged down a large mountain. The figure reached a dark metal hand out of its cloak and pressed a button, cutting the screen off. The figure turned away and headed into the darkness of its own cave.

"Ha! where's your Emperor now you imperial fraks?" A large flak jacket covered man yelled. He fired a few more lasgun shots at the fleeing loyalists, missing all of them. His squad had managed to take a small factory on the outside of the city, but every gain counts. He sneered, a few teeth missing in his evil grin. Suddenly the ceiling screamed as metal bent and broke under pressure. The large rebel looked up just in time to see a large crate head right for him. His squad gasped as his body vanished under what looked like a metal coffin. A small blood splatter was all that was left of their fearless leader. They raised their rifles at the crate as it began to creak and groan.

OBJECTIVE: Total elimination of rebellion leaders. *Value level Red*

TASKED: Eversor 8467-E *Clover*

ADDED NOTES: Inquisitor Thrax: Let none stand in your way. Your objective is clear we cannot lose Titanicus. Its production value is too great. Eliminate everyone who poses a threat. Emperors light guide and protect.

*End Briefing*

Inside the coffin the fair skinned human groaned as her injection sights were probed again with the all too familiar narcotics of various colors and stengths. Her eyes flew open with the sudden jolt of adrenaline. The mission prep was burned into her vision, as she almost like a dog on the hunt committed it to memory. Her prison quaked as a few nozzles appeared over her nude body and began to spray a black liquid. The liquid formed over her body and connected and smoothed over on its own. Her helmet was slid down over her face; she was now the very face of death and despair. The rest of her gear, the armor, the pack, the clips and survival gear were strapped on to her by the encasing. She grinned happily as her prison depressurized and opened up.

Around the entrance stood five terrified men all brandishing standard lasguns, they stood no chance. Her fingers slipped into her gauntlet and around her Exitus pistol. The startled rebels barely had time to give orders before the female assassin was upon them. She leaped from the coffin, reaching almost 7-8 feet in the air before landing on the closest man. He screamed just in time for her clawed fingers to draw four red lines across his neck, silencing him forever. The remaining four yelled and opened fire, their terrified hands barely able to keep their aim straight. One soldier fired a shot so poorly aimed it went straight into the ground, not ten feet from him. Clover smiled behind her skull mask and lunged, burying her gauntlet into the torso of a larger cultist, his gun discharging into the ground as he was lifted into the air. Clover's drugs flowed into her, giving her the strength to lift a tank if needed. She kicked the dying man off her hand, sending him flying through the air and into the concrete wall, cracking it under the force. The assassin's suit dripped with blood as the waterproof material kept anything from seeping in. Clover rolled her fingers, clicking the blades of her gauntlet together. The remaining men continued to fire again and again, but miss horribly. The Eversor waited patiently, not moving as her drugs swapped tubes to give her speed over strength.

"Damnit, shoot this bitch!" the remaining leadership of the squad commanded, as he fired one shot square at her chest. Clover smiled and leapt into the air, flipping and landing just as the lasblast ended. She looked up and the man's eyes widened in terror. Before he could fire again, Clover was upon him. Her blades protruded from his back as she disrupted as many internal organs as she could. He coughed blood onto her shoulder as she pulled her blades out. The man fell onto his back, dead, some pieces of his flesh still clung to the blades. The last two turned to run, only to find the doorway blocked by a massive, black, metal creature. One soldier foolishly pulled back his fist and hit the creatures chest hard, only to break his hand under the force.

"Gah! My fraking hand!" he yelled as he fell to his knees, griping his odd angled fist. The iron warrior brought back his hand and backhanded the cultist, sending blood splattering across the room along with bits of skull. The remaining cultist, stuck between two of what he could only describe as Death incarnates, pulled out a totem to the chaos gods. "For Slaanesh!" he cried in a crazed tone. He raised his hand and shattered the icon, which emitted a pink and purple mist from the bits. The cultist screamed as his body warped, as if something was growing inside his skin. He choked as his flesh began to split, leaking a purple fluid from the separations. Suddenly he violently exploded, sending the remnants of his flesh scorching with a purple flame across the room. What was left horrified even the fearless iron warrior.

"What a strange predicament…" a deep articulate voice came from the purple shrouded creature. "Two machines of death, come together for no reason?" the mist faded and what remained looked to Strazon like a cross between a Tyranid, and an Eldar. The creature had armored plates on its arms and legs, but its torso looked exposed and unprotected. The creature had one grotesque mammary gland on one side of its chest, and what looked like a organic pectoral muscle where the other mammary gland should have been. "Did you wake me?" Strazon asked, as he bent down and picked up the awkwardly small human rifle in his hand. His hand to large for the finger guard, simply crushed the object away from the trigger.

The Eversor grinned, "Good more of a challenge foul creature!" She interrupted the daemons response. Her accent was ancient; the Daemon had not heard a human speak with such a tone in centuries. No matter how intrigued it was it ignored the human and turned to the real reason why it obliged the cultist request to be here; the strange, out of place immortal. "No I did not. Strange, however, your kind rarely speaks, and when it does it never speaks to warp spawn, why are you different?" the large daemon asked in a sly tone, with a massive sneer on its flawless face.

The Daemon suddenly felt a sharp pain in its back, and turned to find the human female clawing away at her hind side. "How cute. Go about your mission petty creature." The large Daemon raised its arm up and backhanded the drug experiment across the blood soaked floor. As the creature moved it suddenly felt an even more intense pain in its neck, turning its head to find the man of iron had jammed the gun into the Daemon's chest. The weapon discharged, creating a crater in the Daemons back, in front of where the gun discharged. "Wha-"the large abomination groaned. Strazon withdrew the barrel of the rifle from the creature and cranked back the gun, landing the butt powerfully against the Warp spawn's head, with a resounding crack. Much to Starzon's dismay, the strength of the impact cracked the gun in hid grip, rendering it useless. In an instant the creature burst into flames and vanished, leaving the two killing machines alone in the dark dingy factory room. "Wait-"Strazon said, just as the assassin leapt at him.

(Please review. I enjoy constructive criticism.)


	3. Reunion

Life and Metal: Chapter 3: Reunion

"Wait-"Strazon barely got the words out of his mechanical throat before the female assassin was upon him. She jabbed and clawed expertly at the metal husk of a man, but his centuries of experience kept him alive. Clover swiped and swung away bits and pieces of the monstrosity, but they continued to heal back just as quickly as she would flay them off. Every one of her strikes was met by an arm or an elbow of the machine.

"Why won't you DIE!" she yelled in a crazed tone as her strikes became more enraged. Despite her inability to land a killing blow, she was managing to push Strazon back, closer and closer to the factory walls. Strazon remained silent as he dodged, blocked and parried her attacks with his bare metal arms. Strazon suddenly felt his back clang against the concrete wall, he was out of room. He glared down at the infuriated assassin as she winded back her clawed hand. Behind her mask, Clover sneered. "There was no way he was dodging this one", she thought to herself. Her claws passed right through Strazon's raised arm like butter, as her drug pumping muscles powered through his necrodermis. Clover finally felt something vital as her claws drove into his metal rib cage. Despite Strazon being metal, the claws still injected their lethal toxin. His metal innards went undamaged by the poison, but the trauma from her twisting and gouging hands was too much. Strazon buckled over as the assassins hand withdrew, its damage already done.

"Thanks for the help." Clover said coldly as she lifted up her leg and kicked Strazon's head into and then through the concrete wall. His body went limp but he remained conscious as the assassin left the building, her claws coated in black metal. When he was sure the assassin had left, Strazon tenderly and weakly lifted his metal hand up to his ribs. He felt the damage and how long it was taking to repair, he was going to die. He slowly sat up and looked down at the leaking chest cavity as the bones melded back together. "So this is how it ends." He said flatly to himself, his tone as lifeless as his body would soon be. He slowly stood, despite his systems warning him against it. Using the broken wall as support the massive robot stood up, one hand covering his leaking chest. Strazon looked up at the sky as explosions ripped the clouds apart. He had never taken time to enjoy any of this world's beauty. He watched as yellow drop ships plummeted down from the sky.

"Space Marines." He growled as one ship headed towards him. Luckily or unluckily for Strazon an anti air round hit the ships engine and blasted a large portion of the ship's hull apart. Strazon lumbered back into the factory quickly to dodge any further damage, just as the ship crashed loudly into the area just outside where he was. Fire exploded outside the hull as the door to the hold opened with a loud bang. The doors integrity faltered and it fell to pieces just as it opened.

Strazon turned and saw a few yellow painted and armored bodies slumped out of the ship. He leaned down and grabbed another discarded lasgun from the ground and broke the finger guard like before. He looked at the gun and noticed a dial on the side, knowing only the basics of how the gun worked; he quickly turned the dial up all the way into the red zone on the small gothic style chart. Strazon slowly started to work his way back past the now scorched bodies back towards the hole his head and body made. His systems screamed at him to hold position and wait for repairs that he knew were never coming. He slowly lumbered towards the craft as he saw movement. Humans were clever, Space Marines were smart, and he knew he needed to take advantage of their predicament before they took advantage of his.

"Status Report, NOW!" Sergeant Primus yelled at his obviously dead pilots. His remaining tactical squad members grumbled as they disengaged from their restraints, bolters and melta guns at the ready. Primus looked at the three remaining troops in disappointment. The dead littered the inside of the dropship more than he would have liked. "Sir Status shows 8 dead, not including the pilots." One Imperial fist said flatly as the cockpit exploded. "We still have a mission Fists." Primus turned and grabbed a chainsword out of a dead marine's clenched hand, completely ignoring what the Fist said. "And we will see it-"were the last words out of the Sergeant's mouth as his exposed head was blasted apart. The remaining marines looked in horror as a large Necron Immortal wielding an overcharged lasgun lumbered into the bay of the ship, one hand over his chest, the other holding the gun at the rest of them menacingly. He stepped over the body of their honored sergeant and crushed a bit of remaining skull as he did. Before any of them could raise their weapons to return fire, Strazon dropped two more of the group with perfectly aimed headshots. The lasgun clicked as he tried to down the last member. Strazon had used up the charge punching through the thick armor of the other marines and was now looking down the business end of a bolter.

"Die Xenos Scum!" the last Marine said calmly as he unloaded enough bullets to put down a daemon at the Necron. When the Marine lowered his weapon however, the Immortal was still there, looking just as baffled as the Marine.

Strazon looked at the Marine in wonder, "I should be in pieces." He thought as the marine grumbled and clicked the trigger again. Before more than one bolt could leave the gun, the marine was lifted into the air as a Staff of light penetrated his breast plate. Strazon looked at the marine as he fired the remaining bolts in his clip into the side of the ship in a final attempt to kill whatever was attacking him. Unfortunately for the remaining Marine, the bolts did nothing to harm anything but the remaining integrity of the ship's hull as his body was split in half by a beam of lightning. Strazon tried to look at the Necron that had just saved his life, but his systems shut his body down as they tried to heal. This resulted in him collapsing into the Space Marines ship, at the mercy of this other Necron.

"Calm your nerves my son, too much is planned for you for you to die here." Came a soothing slightly mechanical voice into Strazon's mind as his sensors shut down.

Clover sneered as she watched the black liquid leak out of the metal figure. Her drugs slowed and she turned and walked gracefully out of the building, knowing she still had an objective. The Eversor quickened her pace to a dead sprint as she hopped over debris and bodies to get to the city. The battle raged and very few militants took the time to pay attention to the black blur that rushed through the battle field. Guardsmen and Cultist alike fought building to building, room to room as the assassin headed deeper and deeper into the heart of the city. Suddenly her helmet dampened incoming sound as loud shots exploded overhead, shattering ears of any without protection. The white skull clad assassin looked up to see the yellow dropships of the Imperial Fist Space Marine chapter plummeting to the planet's surface. "Great." Clover muttered as she continued through the city. "Space Marines always complicate things." She said in a low tone as her suit buzzed with incoming communication taps from the ships. *Crack* "Die Xenos scum!" one marine yelled as the ships began to land. Gun fire blazed through her helm; clearly the marines were too fond of their guns to keep them away from their faces. Sounds of metal breaking and screaming came through into her head painfully as the marine cried out in pain, "Sir, contact has been lost with dropship three and its squad." Came shortly after the fight in the Eversor's helmet silenced.

Clover ignored the idle chatter of what she figured was basic battle talk, but then something surprised her. "Your fate is entwined with his, girl." Came a smooth soothing voice into her audio receptors. Suddenly her sensors went mad and began signaling xenos in every direction from her and at every height and depth. Clover looked around and flicked the safety off on her pistol and looked around the building she had entered angrily. Her drug injectors flared up again and she felt her hands begin to shake. She let out a crazed laugh and spun around faster than the human eye could see. "Show yourself!" She said laughing like a madman.

"You fight for a system that sees fit to imprison you for centuries." The familiar voice boomed in her head. Clovers drugs warped the voice as she began to hallucinate. Her eyes began to see the Necron Immortal grabbing his ribs out of the corners of her eyes, but every time she looked he would vanish. "You don't frighten me machine!" She spun again trying to catch a glimpse of what she knew was just out of sight. Suddenly a wall behind her broke apart. The assassin spun and aimed her shaking hand at the wall, "Found you bitch!" She cackled as she opened fire, not caring how much ammunition she wasted as long as the machine died once and for all.

"What the hell-" was all that came out of the smoke before all the figures entering the building fell before the hail of Exitus bullets. What fell dead on the floor was not a black machine, but an entire squad of devastator Imperial Fists. Clover began to shake, enraged at what she perceived as trickery. "I'll tear out your eyes you puss eating, xeno skin burning, Necron!" She wailed and continued on as she fired the remainder of her clip at the walls as she spun. Something was wrong, her conscious mind thought, as more and more drugs were pumped into her veins. "The drugs should be cutting off." Her mind said, only to be pushed back and dismissed.

More Marines entered through the hole in the wall and looked at the spinning flailing assassin confused. They only looked for a moment before the noticed the dead devastators. The tactical squad looked at each other before readying bolters, "Kill the traitor." The sergeant ordered from the middle of the group. As they steadied their aim, a loud crash against the side of the building grabbed their attention from the malfunctioning assassin. Suddenly a purple flame blasted a new hole in the opposite wall to the marines. "I can't let you do that Sergeant." A familiar female voice came from the ashes and smoke. Clover finally sensing something she recognized turned and faced the new threat, claws dripping with poison. "This human must not be touched by any other than me." The voice came again, as a large purple armored daemon of Slaanesh materialized from the smoke. The large bipedal creature stood up to its full height, head arcing forward due to the lack of space in the building. The Marines wasted no time in lifting their guns and opening fire at the much larger threat, slowly trying to back out of the hole they entered in. The bolts blew chunks of pink and purple flesh off of the daemon but they could not stop the inevitable. The daemon reared back its head and exhaled hot purple fire over the squad. The ground around what had once been proud loyalists exploded in more purple sparks and fire. When the flames died down, all that remained of the devastator and tactical squads was their charred out yellow armor.

The assassin jittered and shook as her mouth began to foam from the increased level of narcotics in her system. "Poor girl." The suddenly masculine voice boomed. The creature turned and looked at the black clad overdosing warrior with its perfectly sculpted feminine face. "I-I killed you once already f-Foul beast!" Clover shook as she shifted her weight on her feet, ready to dodge or duck.

"No, the immortal slew me, a mistake I do not plan to repeat." The beast reared back and flexed its surprisingly human looking arms and chest as it prepared to wipe the assassin off the face of this planet like the foolish marines. "Dar'Galian, does not show mercy to the crazed!" the daemon roared, revealing its name for the first time. Just as the first flecks of purple flame left the sculpted maw of Dar'Galian, the daemon choked and looked down. A long black rod protruded from the daemons torso. "Hello old friend." A smooth slightly mechanical voice came slicing through the room as a black cloaked creature appeared gripping the staff. "You…" Dar'Galian grumbled back in its now feminine voice. The daemon's torso slowly began to freeze as the black figure twisted the staff. Faint bolts of electricity jumped across the daemon's skin and tore apart flesh as they scattered.

"Me." The figure replied as it yanked back its weapon, shattering the entire torso of the daemon as its frozen flesh fell to pieces. Dar'Galian roared in anger as it erupted in purple flames and vanished. "So you're the skull barer are your?" the figure turned, revealing who and what it was to the jittering Clover. He was a Necron without a doubt, but his body was different than any other Necron Clover had seen or even heard about. His normally bone looking arms had been replaced with necrodermis looking flesh. In fact his whole body could arguably be said to look rather mortal and less machine than any Necron clover had ever laid eyes on. His metal flesh warped and moved like normal skin would, but with a slow weight to it. The machines slender figure looked similar to a humans, but with longer limbs and broader shoulders. The machines head remained the same as a normal Necron's but was adorned with ornate markings and glyphs. The carvings had been colored gold and gently pulsated, as if like veins, down the machines body. The body of the creature looked similar to an Eldar, but sturdier and more masculine. The machines lower half was covered in a shingled armored sash that wrapped around its upper thighs tightly and draped down between its legs. The creature's body rippled and it spoke again

"We must speak mortal, do not fear I am not here to harm you." The machine planted its staff of light firmly down on the ground next to it staring at the assassin with its glowing green eyes. Clover jittered, barely able to see straight, as the tubes slowed down more and more. "I'll speak with you when we're dead!" she roared as she lunged at the Necron, swiping away angrily. This Necron, however, clearly had much more close combat experience than the drugged up assassin and batted away her hand powerfully with his staff. Each of her swipes was expertly blocked, preventing her from even touching his metal body.

"I will not kill you human, but if you do not concede your drugs just might." The cloaked machine said calmly as it looked into her mask flatly. Each swipe came slower than the last as her body tried desperately to cope with the massive influx, then denial of the narcotics. Clover knew she was doomed to explode if her heart rate dropped too much. She tried to move faster but her body began to shut down. She finally resorted to throwing herself at her target, hoping somehow her blades would connect with it. Her lunge was intercepted perfectly by a staff to the stomach, sending her sprawling across the room. Her mouth leaked blood and foam as she tried to stand. Her arms faltered and Clover collapsed onto the ground, cracking the eyepiece of her skull mask. "Kill me." She coughed hoping the explosion would take the strange Necron with her if she could get him close enough. The machine approached and shook its head slowly. "You have something much grander than a measly assassin in your cards girl." The machine said as it bent down, covering her in its cloak. Her head buzzed and the ground spun as she felt her weight shift in space. Her strength slowly left her body as she felt the drugs bubble in her veins, "Then those cards are wrong." She said as her blood boiled in her skin and her vision darkened.

UPDATE: Sorry everyone i have been out of country for a while, and unable to write. Chapter 4 is in the early stages of writing now (pondering ideas in the shower) i hope to have it done by the end of the week. Peace Readers!


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